Lamps for old.....

[Jann]

The bungalow next door to us is up for sale ,sadly the elderly lady died and the property has gone to probate so it will be a cheaper sale.

My question is that the property is only 25 years old and the description of it in the local paper describes it as needing the kitchen and bathroom up grading this I do not understand as they always seemed okay to me,in fact ours is the same!!!

Do you consider this age to be in need of upgrading,the house I was brought up in stood exactly the same when that too was put up for sale albeit the kitchen range was taken out,but the bathroom stayed the same as when it was built 1934 to when my Dad died in 1985!!!

Is it a case of keeping up with the Jones

[Rowan]

A lot of it is Jann - also because people nowadays are used to upgrading everything after a few years.

[clevewyn]

Being formerly of the building trade and having worked in hundreds of houses I can tell you with some certainty that the first two changes made by new owners are the Kitchen and the Bathroom.

The kitchen units are always the wrong design for Madam even if they are only a few months old. I have thrown countless perfectly good almost new ones in the skip.

Same thing with the bathroom suite, it`s the wrong colour usually. I have even replaced a not very old white one with a brand new white one and if you stood them up along side each other you couldn`t tell the difference.

[Victors Mate]

The only thing I need to upgrade is me, definitely in desperate need of renovation.

[Tiddles]

For you VM!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HofoK_QQxGc

[vannin]

I can't remember much about the first bathroom suite in this house we moved into 43 years ago, except it was white. Am also hazy as to what year we changed it for the new fashionable suite and installed the bath the other way around. The colour is Champagne from the era when Avocado, Rose etc were also in vogue.......now known to be very oldfashioned indeed.

To get it upgraded for the sake of it seems a massive outlay. At the moment I have just committed several hundred to a new intruder alarm system, having had many prowlers this year, and at least twice there were jemmying attempts on the back porch door. This amount of money was about to be spent on a new fuseboard, as I still have the old kind of fuse box. But a choice had to be made and the security is more urgent.

The bathroom must wait like other house upgrades, into a hazy future.

Viv

[rocky]

A lot of it is Jann - also because people nowadays are used to upgrading everything after a few years.

[font=Tahoma]Is that a part of the "keeping up with the Joneses" syndrome? I can't think of any other reason.[/font]

[Vince]

If it still works leave it. why waste your hard earned cash, it's your house and the way you like it.

[toolip2]

When we moved to another county in 1995 the house we bought had a lovely kitcen units by John Moore (kichen cabinet makeres still in business) light grain oak and with the cathedral pattern on the doors. I love them and I would not change them. Personal choice of course. We had (note the past tense!!) some friends a few years ago and the wife said in conversation that "the units(ours) are a bit dated) I have seen the same units in a new house recently so she is talking c**p, IMO.

Fashions do change and who remembers those huge sheets of glass and picture windows in the 70's? Serving hatches? (we have one of those, mind) Georgian windows and sods to paint. Bathroom suites in avacado!!! Deffo passe according to some. I like my kitchen furniture to be robust and warm looking and homely like the rest of our house.

Vince, I agree!

[Victors Mate]

Toolip fashion is fleeting, style is eternal.

[Rowan]

Exactly - I don't understand this bnit about colours being dated - surely you like what you like!

(We had a serving hatch too).

[Anya]

Our first house cost less than my second-hand car today and we bought it for CASH ??!!

I had been doing some writing and saved all the money from that, as it was 'extra'. In an unwise moment my dad had said that when I married he would double any money I had saved, he was a bit shocked when he saw my savings account.

It was a new house, still being built and the bathroom we chose was 'primrose yellow', it were luverlee. When I moved to this house, the main bathroom had a maroon suite, which I still love, at least it's different.

Why must all bathroom suites today be white?

[mazzy]

Our bathroom suite is champagne too. We have just had new doors put on our 30 year old kitchen units.
We even have a wooden room divider between the lounge and dining room, and on one small wall we have some hessian wallpaper!!!!

Change for the sake of it....not me!

[vannin]

Our bathroom suite is champagne too. We have just had new doors put on our 30 year old kitchen units.
We even have a wooden room divider between the lounge and dining room, and on one small wall we have some hessian wallpaper!!!!

Change for the sake of it....not me!

Yes, champagne is very pleasant to live with, as are magnolia walls........a colour which came back into fashion a few years ago. During the years it was considered way out-of-date, the more 'with-it' people used to make derisive noises if 'magnolia' was mentioned. Worse mockery was made of the avocado bathrooms. I personally disliked the colour but never thought it was mockable.

Many items that returned to fashion are are now called 'retro' which is desirable to have!!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Retro_style

There are also retro food and drink, like Spam, Babycham (yuk) and Blue Nun wine. About ten years ago, my husband bought a bottle of Blue Nun to take to a family party. Our daughter, in a phase of trend-snobbyness, announced she would not accompany us to the party with THAT wine, hid it in the car and brought some beers! She HAS grown up now at 41!


I have decided the bathroom, the whole house too, is RETRO therefore the height of trendy.

Viv

[Jann]

The house I was brought up in had a white suite which I at the time thought was sooooooooo old fashioned,but at least we did have a bathroom,oh and yes our bungalow which was built in 1982 came with an advocado bathroon suite which is still in situ